


Emergency is My Thing

by writershapeholeonthedoor



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/F, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hospitals, Love, Romance, it's a good thing she met a doctor, root always finds a way to get hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 15:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19948570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writershapeholeonthedoor/pseuds/writershapeholeonthedoor
Summary: AU: Shaw finishes med school and meets Root in the ER.





	Emergency is My Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Go follow me on Tumblr, @imagineheadcanonsarea. You can send me an ask, a message and prompts, if you have one.  
> Also, english is not my first language, so please let me know if there's something wrong!

In retrospect, it was barely worth it, Root thought while holding her injuried arm by her side with her scratched hand. There was blood flooding freely from a wound in her shoulder and she was almost sure she had broke a bone or two somewhere, her left arm didn’t had any blood in it – not hers, at least – but her wrist felt like it was crushed by a bus. Or a man big enough to be mistaken with a bus, she corrected in her head, whincing when Reese took a turn to right.

“Sorry.” The man said, but the words didn’t actually held any mean to them.

Root tried to smile throught clenched jaws. “Are you mad at me, John?”

Reese scoffed, trowing a side glare at her. “I told you to wait for me.”

“And I told you I wasn’t going to.” Root joked with a grin. To be honest, the plan was going to work, but then the bus-man got there with his bus-friends and she quickly outnumbered. Again, it was hardly worth her effort, because the number was a jerk and they should have let him die. “And I think you’re overreacting, I’m fine.”

“Oh, yes?” Reese arched one eyebrow, sarcasm slipping all over the place. “What about we grab a beer then?”

“I would prefer some shots, but sure, why not?” The hacker tried to shrug, but the pain that rush down her shoulder to her fingers made her flinch and hiss. “Harry is not going to be happy.” She tried another tactic.

“Yes, well, Harold is not in the subway now, is he?” Reese made another turn to right and entered the parking lot without hitting the brake once. A nurse, who was helping some old man walk, give their black car a glare, but John ignored it when he pulled the parking brake so suddenly that their bodies jerked inside the car. “Get out, I’m finding somewhere to park.”

Root rolled her eyes. “Seriously, John, that’s not necessary. Besides, the ER is full right now. We can’t risk to be seen, can we?” Reese only kept looking at her with no emotions on his face, so the hacker only sighed and tried to open de car’s door. With clenched teeths and eyes filled with tears, she finally managed to do it and slidded off the vehicle with much less grace than she usually had. She waited a few seconds to see if John was going to leave so she could leave, but he stayed there until she walked past the ER’s automatic doors. “Jerk.” She whispered under her breath.

Like she expected it, the place was filled with people from one side to the other. There was about twenty kids, coughing, running noses and puking with worried moms hovering over them like vultures. Other than that, there was a guy in the corner with what appeared to be a broken nose, a girl holding her heels in one hand while tapping in her phone with the other, two guys with black eyes and a teenager with blood leaving his forehead from a open wound. That’s why Root hated hospitals.

With a deep sigh, knowing that Reese would be back in any time and would be really pissed if she was still standing there – and that they really didn’t had much time – she walked to the reception desk, where a girl, looking in her mid-twenties, looked up with a tired smile.

“Yes?”

Root almost asked her if it wasn’t obvious. She had blood all over her. “I might have broke my arm or something like it.”

“Oh, well, you need to fill up this forms and then a doctor will see you right away.” The girl put a paper mountain in the desk, slidding a pen with it, offering another smile.

Root wanted to roll her eyes. “Do you think it’s going to take much longer for the doctor see me?”

“I don’t have how to give you that information, ma’am.”

“Fine, we will fill it.” Reese was suddenly by her side, grabbing the papers and the pen, and pushed Root with his other hand so they could find a place to sit – as far away from the cameras as they could manage.

“What?”

“The longer you wait to do it, the longer is going to take. I just saw three more cars getting here.” Reese finally maged to find a seat, next to one of the kids with a running nose and the guy with the broken nose. He choose the broken nose, so Root had to set between him and the kid. “I will ask, you answer and I write.” His voice had no humor and Root wanted to make fun of him for it, but he was serious about being fast. “Name.”

“Hm...” Root tilted her head to the side, considering it. “We will go with Elizabeth Root.”

“You’re joking.” Reese murmured, even if he was already writing it all down. “35.”

“34, your jerk.”

“Shut up.” The man filled some informations he didn’t had to ask her about (sex, marital status, adress because he just put the McDonald down the street, and phone number, again with the McDonald). “When was the last time you had your period?”

Root looked at him with a side smirk. “Are you worried, honey?”

Reese kept her look for a couple of seconds, before turning back to the paper in his hand. “Last week.”

The hacker rolled her eyes. “You’re not fun.”

“Did you took any medication in the last 24 hours?”

“No.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“I was with you all day.”

“Lunch.” He nodded and turned the page. Two more to go. “Symptoms?”

Root arched her eyebrows. “Isn’t that obvious?”

Reese sighed. “Can you help me here, please? We have to get out before Harold gets in the subway.”

“It was your idea.” She reminded him.

“I could swear it was actually your idea to not wait for me.” The detective shot back angrily.

Root glared at him for a while and took a deep breath. “My right shoulder has a deep cut, it’s bleeding, I can’t move my fingers or fold my elbow. My left wrist is hurting like a bitch.” She offered. He wrote down what she said under her vigilant look over him. “Did you actually wrote bitch?”

* * *

“Ms. Root?” A nurse called – almost two hours later – holding clipboard with what she thought was her informations. Root raised to her feet quickly, happy to move. Since she got there, the kid by her side had sneezed in her five times and the man with the broken nose hit on her for about half an hour before Reese threat to break something else. “The doctor will see you now, please follow me.”

“I will wait here.” Reese called after her and she managed to give him a half thumb up with her left hand, following the woman throught white doors.

The nurse, a short woman around her forthies, walked with her throught a hallway, until she reached a closed door – ER's Room 3 – and sliped the clipboard under the door’s number. “The doctor will be here in a second.” She said, openning the door so Root could walk inside.

Root only sighed when the door closed again behind her. There was a stretcher to her left and a small table to her right. She wondered if she could cross the whole room in six steps, but decided not to test her teory. It’s a free clinic, she reminded herself, and it is your fault you’re here. She walked to sit in the stretcher since there was not chairs in the room, wiggling her body so she wouldn’t have to use her hands.

The hacker had just found a spot that was soft enough when there was a knock in the door and the handle turned imediatly after that. Root searched her mind for all the lies Reese and her had write down in the papers in case she needed, and waited for the doctor enter her vision.

And then almost passed out when it happened.

Okay, she was waiting for some old bald man, looking much older than he actually was, with tired eyes and shaking hands, in a bad mood that would make her want to punch him. But the doctor was the complete opposite – besides the bad mood. It was a woman, looking maybe a few years younger than Root, with dark hair up tight in a ponytail, using the white coat that stoped just after her knees. Under it, she was using white jeans, white shoes and a blue shirt that hugged her in all the right places. Root felt her mouth get dry.

The woman finally looked up the clipboard in her hand – that Root hadn’t realized before – and her dark eyes met Root’s across the room. “Ms. Root?” Her voice was deep, husky and without any type of emotions.

God, Root wished Reese was there so she could look at him and scream ‘holy fuck’. “That would be me, yeah.” She was proud of herself for not letting her voice shake. Suddenly, she wished she was wearing something that wasn’t ripped all over – and soaked with blood.

The doctor nodded, sliding a pen back to her pocket and leaving the clipboard in the table, before walking to the other corner of the room to put the medical gloves on. “I’m doctor Shaw, I will be the one taking care of you today.”

Oh, you can take care of me any day you want, sweetie. Root sang in her head, only letting a smile show. “That’s great, I’m sure I’m in good hands.”

Doctor Shaw didn’t look up until she was done with the gloves and by that she was already standing right in front of Root. If she realized the small flirt, she didn’t reacted to it, and Root felt a small rock fall in her stomach. “You said you have a cut in your shoulder and couldn’t move your fingers. Can I have a look?”

“Oh, you can look all of it.” The hacker flirted with a smirk, moving her left arm to lean her uper body to try to find a better potion – a more flattering one -, but, as soon as her hand started to hold any pression, the pain shot from her wrist to the rest of her arm and she hissed in pain, quickly pulling her arm back.

The doctor only arched one eyebrow, not impressed or amused, she was all business. Root felt her confidence lost some space inside her and sighed sadly. “Your other wrist is hurting too from what I got.”

“To be honest, I’m fine.” Root started talking, moving her arm the best she could in doctor Shaw’s direction so the woman could start her examination. Root prayed to every divinity that might exist that the doctor didn’t had to check her pulse or anything, because the second the younger woman held her hand in hers, her heart started to beat so fast she could swear it was trying to go up her throat. She cleared her troat to compose herself. “If John didn’t made me come here, I would probably be at home by now.”

“Maybe you should listen to this John more times.” Shaw whispered, rotating Root’s arm as gently as she could, expert fingers poking here and there in some bruises that marked the pale skin. Her fingers slowly made their way up her arm, examinating a few cuts she found in the way, until it reached her shoulder, the biggest issue.

The blood had stoped comming from it in the two hours she had stayed in the chair outside, but the cut was still there and, as soon as doctor Shaw touched it, the blood restarted. The doctor managed to turn her body to use her other hand to grab some gauze. “Weren’t you supposed to help me?” Root joked, looking at the wound in her shoulder with slight curiosity. She had worse happening to her before. If it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t move her fingers, she would have run away the second Reese stoped the car.

“I need to see how deep it is, it might have reached nerves, tendons or veins.” Doctor Shaw explained and removed the gauze to look at the cut again. The blood had once again stoped and she threw the gauze in the garbage. Her gloves had become red with blood, so she changed it before moving to look at the other arm. “Can I ask how all of that happened?”

“It envolved a large stair and a dog.” Root was still smiling, even if her body was hurting everywhere.

“What a weird stair. I don’t think I ever saw one that had knives instead of steps.” Shaw shot her a glare, clearly saying that she could see the bullshit.

“Maybe you should stop by my place then. If you think the stairs are impressive, you should take a look in my...”

“I’m going to ask for x-rays.” The doctor cut her quickly, taking a step back. She finally looked a little flusted, the tip of her ears became slightly pink and Root let a happy smile light up her face. Oh, yes. “I think you might have broke your fingers, three of them actually. We also have to check the other wrist. I don’t believe it’s broken, but it’s always good to look at it. The cut in your shoulder is deep, but it didn’t got anything important, so I will ask a nurse to clean it and we can give some stitches.”

“Anything you say, doc.”

Two hours later, Root finally left the ER, a lollipop between her lips – Reese almost died when she walked to the nurse to ask for one. Root had in fact broke three of her fingers – index, middle and pinkie – and had a twisted wrist, so both of her hands were immobilized. She also had gained twelve stitches in her shoulder and a pain killers prescription, other than a request to come back in a week to see if the stitches could be removed.

* * *

Harold was going to kill her if he found out she was using the Machine to get personal information, but that was exactly why she was careful to not leave anything behind. Yet, Root had already formed five different excuses to use if he did find out. She had to call a cab since she couldn’t drive or hold herself in a train, but she finally reached the ER’s door. Just like it was six hours ago, the place had so many people that Root was a little surprised that no one was hanged in the ceiling.

For a second, Root wondered if that was too crazy – even for her – but she shoved the idea to the back of her head. She could worry about that if her plan backfired. Using her skills, and she had a lot, the hacker managed to slid in the hospital system using a tablet and only one hand. Doctor Shaw was still attending the ER’s patients, but her shift was almost in the end. Root easily passed by the reception, not once being stoped, and started to walk down the same hallway she did earlier in the day.

She only had to find the right room, something that the computers couldn’t inform her. Root was about to knock in a random door when she spoted white coat and ponytail walking to a nurse’s station. Bingo. The woman made her way to that spot, feeling a mix of confidence and nervousness. Even to her standards, it was insane and she knew it.

“Hey.” Her voice was smooth and the doctor jumped in surprise, almost drobbing the papers she was writing on.

Doctor Shaw turned around with a fire in her eyes that could only mean she didn’t liked being surprised like that. “What are you doing here?”

“I think I might need another doctor.” Root rocked from one foot to another, smirk in place, hands behind her back like a small child. Her shoulder was screaming in pain, but she ignored it.

Doctor Shaw barely looked at her, before collecting the papers in the counter. “If you say so.”

She didn’t looked worried like Root was expecting. Okay, she was going to stay with her plan for a little longer. Shaw started to walk away from the nurse’s station without looking at the woman behind her, but Root was fast to follow her. “Aren’t you going to ask why?”

“People had told me I don’t deal well with criticism.” The doctor threw her a forced smile over her shoulder and opened a door to slid in. Root quickly steped inside before the door was closed.

“I still think you should ask.”

Doctor Shaw rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in exasperation. “Of course I can’t have a normal day at work.” She whispered to herself. “Please, enlight me, Ms. Root, why do you need another doctor?”

“Because I came here with a few cuts...”

“Broken bones.” Shaw corrected her, but Root ignored it.

“And left with a heart condition.” The hacker finished with a proud smile. She was actually proud of her for comming up with that – she was sure Fusco would be too.

Shaw looked completly unimpressed, bored even, when she raised one eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, I can suggest you one of our cardiologists.”

“I think that won’t do.” Root shook her head. “You caused the problem, I think you should solve it.”

“I’m not a cardiologist.” That was the only thing doctor Shaw said, with absolutelly no emotions in her voice. Root’s smile fell, feeling her plan starting to hit her in the face. Seeing her reaction, doctor Shaw took a deep breath to get ready to whatever she was going to hear. “What are your symptoms?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Root excitement was back in full force and Shaw instantly regret her decision. “You see, my heart is beating really really fast, I’m having this feeling in my belly everytime I think about something, my hands are sweaty and my mind can only think about one thing.”

“Do you want a medical opinion?” Shaw asked. Understanding the clue completly wrong, Root quickly nodded with a large smile. “Pain killers can elevate your heart beat, you said in your file that you hadn’t eat since lunch and if you still hadn’t eat anything, that could also be the medication. And you have casts in your hands, that’s why they’re sweaty. Do you still think you need another doctor?”

Root droped her shoulders, finally realizing it was not going to work. “Okay, fine, got it.”

“If you’re done, my shift is done and I would like to leave.” Doctor Shaw moved to take her white coat off and suddenly the hacker’s mind was a blank space. That was probably the prettier woman she ever saw and it was doing things to her.

“Since you’re out, would you like to grab a coffee?”

Shaw raised one eyebrow to that. “I don’t think you got it after all.” She murmured under her breath, shaking her head.

“I pay.” Root added. “I will just need your help to grab my wallet.”

“And were is it?”

“Back pocket.” The older woman winked with a side grin.

Her hopes went back up when she saw the smallest smile in the doctor’s lips.

* * *

“You should have take the stitches out yesterday.”

“You weren’t here yesterday.” Root had lost all filters since she entered the ER's Room 5 and saw Shaw following her shortly after.

The doctor stoped just a few inches from touching her shoulder with a clamp, raising her eyes to look at Root in surprise. “How did you knew that?”

I hacked the hospital computer to get your schedual and agenda. “Asked the nurse.” Root shrugged.

Shaw kept her look for a couple of seconds, before returning to the task in hands. “Are you stalking me? Should I get a restraining order?”

“You already went on a date with me.”

“It wasn’t a date.”

“What was it?”

“Two people drinking coffee at the same table.” Shaw growled.

Root smiled. “That sounds like a date.” Doctor Shaw put a little more pressure in her move, making Root hiss and back up a little bit. Shaw held her in place with strong hands and rolled her eyes. “So... when are you leaving?”

“Didn’t the nurse told you that too?” Shaw cut the last stitch and turned her head to the side to look at it. After the wound was clean, she could see it wasn’t as deep as she first saw and it had completly healed, leaving a red scar behind.

“That would be rude.”

“And you’re against i?” The doctor glared at her and moved to put the instruments away. “Let me see your wrist.”

“I already told you: you can look anything you want.”

“You’re aware that you’re not the first patient to hit on me, right?”

Root got sad for only a second, before her smile was back and her eyes sparkled. “So you did realized I’m hitting on you.”

“Just because I’m not impressed by it, dosen’t mean I don’t know it’s going on.” Shaw was taking as much care as she could while moving Root’s hand around. Her wrist was not swollowed like it was a week before and she was glad to see there the other bruises in the woman’s arms were also gone. “Can you move your fingers?” Root slowly closed her fingers, opened, closed again, then made a move of come here with her index finger. Shaw rolled her eyes. “Move your wrist, up and down.” The taller woman did as she was told, holding back any other comment. “Does it hurt?”

“Nope.” It did only in the first day, but Root was used to feel pain and got used to it until it was gone.

“I recomend you keep using the cast for another week, just so it dosen’t get worst again.” Shaw removed her gloves, throwing then in the garbage. “You need to see an orthopedist about your broken fingers, he can send you to physioterapy when the time comes.”

“Can’t you do it?”

“No.”

“Why? Are you going to be too busy taking care of my heart?” Root had a devilsh smile when she finally got the reaction she was trying to get. A blush.

“I’m not an orthopedist.” The doctor answered throught clenched jaws.

“Fine.” Root shrugged, jumping of the table. She was going to ask Harold to remove her cast in a few days and would be over it, there was no way she was going to see another doctor – she was already risking herself enough comming to the hospital for the third time that month. “So, coffee?”

“My shift is not over.”

“I can wait.”

* * *

“Are you sure you’re fine?”

“Yes, Root, I’m fine.” Fusco was starting to sound a little annoyed. It was the fourth time the woman was asking him that.

“What’s wrong with you?” Reese asked with a frown, looking her from head to toe. They had just finished the last number and now were standing in an alley, Root was in a squatting position in front of Fusco, who was sitting in the ground – back agains the wall behind him – after being punched by the hired killer that was passed out a few feets away.

“We should take him to the hospital.” Root said in the end, nodding like it was the only logical solution they had.

Fusco and Reese locked eyes, trying to silently comunicate a ‘the fuck’. “I mean, I know you’re crazy, Cuckoo, but, like... are you insane?” Fusco asked in shock.

The woman looked between them like they were missing something important. “You might have a concussion. It’s better to have someone checking it, just to be sure.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Reese placed his hands in his hips, steping in front of her and making her stand up because of it. “You want us to take Fusco to the hospital because he got punched?”

“Thanks, man.” Fusco whispered behind him, also standing up.

“Like I said, it could be something serious.” Root shrugged trying to look as casual as she could.

“I don’t even know what to say.”

* * *

“I have to ask, since no one else here is going to do it.” Fusco was looking at her from the other side of the room, leaned against Harold’s table. “Did you lost your mind?”

“What?” Root asked with as much innocence as she could.

“You want to remove your cast in the hospital?” Fusco asked just to be sure.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, the last time I checked, none of us were a doctor.”

“The last time I checked, none of us live a normal life.” Reese said from his place in the bench, not raising his eyes from the magazine in his hand. “And you didn’t want to go to the hospital in first place.”

“Yes, but you made me do it anyway, so... Why not?”

“Ms. Groves, I don’t think I need to remind you that...”

“You’re right, Harry, you don’t.” Root smiled at the three mans looking at her. “I will take the rest of the day off to take care of my health, I think She will understand it.” She informed, already turning around to walk away.

* * *

“You keep coming back to ER quite a lot.”

“Maybe I lost something here.” Root offered with a smile.

Shaw didn’t look up from the clipboard in her hand. “Of course you did. What is it this time?”

The hacker had decided not to go to the hospital to take her cast off after Reese used a very good argument against her, and it had been almost a month since Harold removed it, over a month since she saw Shaw for the last time. “I have a very especific symptom.” The older woman winked when the doctor looked at her. “Empty stomach.”

Shaw raised one eyebrow. “You didn’t come to the emergency room in a Sunday night, stayed over two hours sitting in the chairs outside, refused to see the other doctor in the shift tonight, just to ask me on a date.”

Root shrugged. “Well, I do have to say you worth it.”

The doctor sighed heavly. “Is that all?”

“Actually, I might have deslocated my shoulder earlier today, but let’s talk about that date.”

* * *

“I do believe I need to call the police after all.” That was the first time Root saw her using something that hadn’t white in it. Shaw was using black jeans and a leather jacket, holding her phone in one hand.

“Didn’t you call for a cab?” Root asked with a smile from her place leaned against the motorcycle behind her.

“You shouldn’t be driving. Your shoulder is still healing, it’s been only two days. And how did you know I called for a cab?”

“My shoulder is fine. And would you believe if I told you the nurse told me?”

Shaw looked around the empty parking lot, before shrugging and shaking her head. “Sure, why not?”

“Sweet. Hop on, doctor Shaw.”

The doctor rolled her eyes while holding the helmet Root reached out for her. “If you call me like that I can’t get in that bike with you. We have a few code of ethics, you know.”

“Fine, I will call you Sam.”

Shaw found her spot behind Root in the motorcycle, resisting the urge to bump her head with the heavy helmet in her hand. “If you do that, you will have another reason to go to the ER.”

“I think now is a good time to mention this...” Root threw a flirting look over her shoulder. “But emergency is kind of my thing.”

“Good thing I’m here then.”


End file.
